scholarly journals Are suggestions from coupled file changes useful for perfective maintenance tasks?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmin Ramadani ◽  
Stefan Wagner

Background Software maintenance is an important activity in the development process where maintenance team members leave and new members join over time. The identification of files which are changed together frequently has been proposed several times. Yet, existing studies about coupled file changes ignore the feedback from developers as well as the impact of these changes on the performance of maintenance and rather these studies rely on the analysis findings and expert evaluation. Methods We investigate the usefulness of coupled file changes during perfective maintenance tasks when developers are inexperienced in programming or when they were new on the project. Using data mining on software repositories we identify files that are changed most frequently together in the past. We extract coupled file changes from the Git repository of a Java software system and join them with corresponding attributes from the versioning and issue tracking system and the project documentation. We present a controlled experiment involving 36 student participants in which we investigate if coupled file change suggestions influence the correctness of the task solutions and the required time to complete them. Results The results show that the use of coupled file change suggestions significantly increases the correctness of the solutions. However, there is only a minor effect on the time required to complete the perfective maintenance tasks. We also derived a set of the most useful attributes based on the developers’ feedback. Discussion Coupled file changes and a limited number of the proposed attributes are useful for inexperienced developers working on perfective maintenance tasks where although the developers using these suggestions solved more tasks, they still need time to understand and organize this information.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmin Ramadani ◽  
Stefan Wagner

Background. Software maintenance is an important activity in the process of software engineering where over time maintenance team members leave and new members join. The identification of files being changes together frequently has been proposed several times. Yet, existing studies about these file changes ignore the feedback from developers as well as the impact on the performance of maintenance and rely on the analysis findings and expert evaluation. Methods. We conducted an experiment with the goal to investigate the usefulness of coupled file changes during maintenance tasks when developers are inexperienced in programming or when they are new on the project. Using data mining on software repositories we can identify files that changed most frequently together in the past. We extract coupled file changes from the Git repository of a Java software system and join them with corresponding attributes from the versioning and issue tracking system and the project documentation. We present a controlled experiment involving 36 student participants where we investigate if coupled file change suggestions influence the correctness of the task solutions and the time to complete them. Results. The results show that coupled file change suggestions significantly increase the correctness of the solutions. However, there is only a small effect on the time to complete the tasks. We also derived a set of the most useful attributes based on the developers feedback. Discussion. Coupled file changes and a limited number of the proposed attributes are useful for inexperienced developers working on maintenance tasks whereby although the developers using these suggestions solved more tasks, they still need time to organize and understand and implement this information.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmin Ramadani ◽  
Stefan Wagner

Background. Software maintenance is an important activity in the process of software engineering where over time maintenance team members leave and new members join. The identification of files being changes together frequently has been proposed several times. Yet, existing studies about these file changes ignore the feedback from developers as well as the impact on the performance of maintenance and rely on the analysis findings and expert evaluation. Methods. We conducted an experiment with the goal to investigate the usefulness of coupled file changes during maintenance tasks when developers are inexperienced in programming or when they are new on the project. Using data mining on software repositories we can identify files that changed most frequently together in the past. We extract coupled file changes from the Git repository of a Java software system and join them with corresponding attributes from the versioning and issue tracking system and the project documentation. We present a controlled experiment involving 36 student participants where we investigate if coupled file change suggestions influence the correctness of the task solutions and the time to complete them. Results. The results show that coupled file change suggestions significantly increase the correctness of the solutions. However, there is only a small effect on the time to complete the tasks. We also derived a set of the most useful attributes based on the developers feedback. Discussion. Coupled file changes and a limited number of the proposed attributes are useful for inexperienced developers working on maintenance tasks whereby although the developers using these suggestions solved more tasks, they still need time to organize and understand and implement this information.


Author(s):  
Harshika Singh ◽  
Gaetano Cascini ◽  
Hernan Casakin ◽  
Vishal Singh

AbstractThe dynamics of design teams play a critical role in product development, mainly in the early phases of the process. This paper presents a conceptual framework of a computational model about how cognitive and social features of a design team affect the quality of the produced design outcomes. The framework is based on various cognitive and social theories grounded in literature. Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) is used as a tool to evaluate the impact of design process organization and team dynamics on the design outcome. The model describes key research parameters, including dependent, independent, and intermediates. The independent parameters include: duration of a session, number of times a session is repeated, design task and team characteristics such as size, structure, old and new members. Intermediates include: features of team members (experience, learning abilities, and importance in the team) and social influence. The dependent parameter is the task outcome, represented by creativity and accuracy. The paper aims at laying the computational foundations for validating the proposed model in the future.


Author(s):  
Larry Swanson ◽  
Hua Zhang ◽  
Doug Byrd

A physical flow model of a gas turbine (GT) simple-cycle Selective-Catalytic-Reduction (SCR) system was constructed to a 1/16 geometric scale to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions and examine the impact of tempering air injection on system performance. Repeatable velocity contours and tempering air dispersion profiles were developed for baseline (no tempering air), and 12- and 6-lance tempering air injector configurations. The conclusions from the study are: (1) relative to the no lance baseline case, the 12-lance configuration tends to force more of the inlet flow towards the top of the duct, whereas the 6-lance configuration does not affect the upstream profile significantly, (2) adding tempering air does not have a significant impact on the diffuser inlet velocity distribution and has a minor effect on the velocity and dispersion profiles at the NOX-catalyst inlet, (3) at the NOX-catalyst inlet, the 6-lance configuration with tempering air exhibits a slightly skewed flow toward the lower right corner of the duct with a coefficient of variation (COV) of 19.4%, which is slightly better than that for the 12-lance configuration, (4) at the NOX-catalyst inlet, the 12-lance configuration disperses tempering air best because its COV is 20.8% relative to a 27.3% COV for the 6-lance configuration, and (5) a comparison between the local mixing-cup temperature contours for both 12- and 6-lance configurations, based on tracer injection into the tempering air flow, confirms that the CFD model does a good job of qualitatively predicting the heat and mass transport processes in the GT simple-cycle SCR system.


2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Petersen-Øverleir ◽  
T. Reitan

Despite frequent use of estimated flood discharges from urban and small rural catchments, the assessment of uncertainty in instantaneous discharge due to inaccurate head measurements is generally not performed. The present work discusses the impact of inaccurate head measurement on observed instantaneous flood discharge. The sources and sizes of uncertainties in head determination are discussed. A simple uncertainty model is developed in order to quantify the uncertainty in error-corrupted instantaneous and mean discharge. It is shown that uncertainty in mean discharge is less affected by uncorrelated head measurement error, while instantaneous discharges are substantially affected. Practical modelling using data from a Norwegian urban gauging station is undertaken. It is shown that the estimated annual maximum instantaneous flood discharge from this watershed has 95% confidence limits with sizes of 17–19% of the estimated discharge for average head measurement accuracy. Furthermore, it is shown that variability in head determination causes only a minor potential for bias in estimated instantaneous flood population statistics and quantiles.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 636-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaimie T. A. Dick ◽  
Michael Armstrong ◽  
Hazel C. Clarke ◽  
Keith D. Farnsworth ◽  
Melanie J. Hatcher ◽  
...  

Invasive species can have profound impacts on communities and it is increasingly recognized that such effects may be mediated by parasitism. The ‘enemy release’ hypothesis posits that invaders may be successful and have high impacts owing to escape from parasitism. Alternatively, we hypothesize that parasites may increase host feeding rates and hence parasitized invaders may have increased community impacts. Here, we investigate the influence of parasitism on the predatory impact of the invasive freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex . Up to 70 per cent of individuals are infected with the acanthocephalan parasite Echinorhynchus truttae , but parasitized individuals were no different in body condition to those unparasitized. Parasitized individuals consumed significantly more prey ( Asellus aquaticus ; Isopoda) than did unparasitized individuals. Both parasitized and unparasitized individuals displayed Type-II functional responses (FRs), with the FR for parasitized individuals rising more steeply, with a higher asymptote, compared with unparasitized individuals. While the parasite reduced the fitness of individual females, we predict a minor effect on population recruitment because of low parasite prevalence in the peak reproductive period. The parasite thus has a large per capita effect on predatory rate but a low population fitness effect, and thus may enhance rather than reduce the impact of this invader.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Draghi ◽  
Troels Holz Borch ◽  
Haja Dominike Radic ◽  
Christopher Aled Chamberlain ◽  
Aishwarya Gokuldass ◽  
...  

AbstractUp to 60% of patients treated with cancer immunotherapy develop severe or life threatening immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Immunosuppression with high doses of corticosteroids or, in refractory cases, with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists, are the mainstay of treatment for irAEs. It is currently unknown what is the impact of corticosteroids and anti-TNF on the activity of antitumor T cells. In this study, the influences of clinically relevant doses of dexamethasone (corresponding to an oral dose of 10 to 125 mg prednisolone) and infliximab (anti-TNF) on the activation and killing ability of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was tested in vitro. Overall, dexamethasone at low or intermediate/high dose impaired the activation (respectively −46% and −62%) and tumor-killing ability (respectively −48% and −53%) of tumor-specific TILs. In contrast, a standard clinical dose of infliximab only had a minor effect on T cell activation (−20%) and tumor killing (−10%). A brief resting following exposure to dexamethasone was sufficient to rescue the in vitro activity of TILs. In conclusion, clinically-relevant doses of infliximab only influenced to a lesser extent the activity of tumor-specific TILs in vitro, whereas even low doses of corticosteroids markedly impaired the antitumor activity of TILs. These data support steroid-sparing strategies and early initiation of anti-TNF for the treatment of irAEs in immuno-oncology.


1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Nesbit ◽  
Terry A. Hartzell ◽  
John C. Nalevanko ◽  
Ryan M. Starr ◽  
Mathew G. White ◽  
...  

This paper discusses the inertia tensors of iron golf club heads and their influence on the swing of a golfer and the behavior of the golf club. Inertia tensors of various five-iron club head configurations were determined using solid modeling and were compared with equivalent solid ellipsoids. A golf swing and club behavior analysis was performed using a computer model comprised of a 3D parametric flexible model of a golf club driven with data from a recorded golf swing, and an impact function. The impact results were verified experimentally. The analysis without impact determined that altering club head inertia had a minor effect on the torque required to swing the club and the deflections of the club head at the time of impact. The analysis with an eccentric impact found that altering club head inertia had a major effect on transmitted forces and torques and a moderate effect on deflection of the club head.


Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Lorenzo Cini ◽  
César Guzmán-Concha

This chapter evaluates the impact of student protests in the four regions on higher education policies. The four cases differ in the degree to which students were able to achieve concessions close to their demands. In both Chile and Quebec, as student demands were supported by significant social constituencies and the government proved unable to appease the protests, the opposition parties presented themselves as allies. These parties committed themselves to delivering reforms that would (partially) meet student demands, while students attempted to gain influence in decision-making bodies by joining political parties and/or participating in elections. By contrast, in England and Italy, students did not obtain concessions from the government, while their campaigns had a minor effect on public opinion, which remained relatively indifferent to their demands. More notably, student protesters failed to build solid alliances with other social and political actors opposing similar neoliberal measures in other fields of policy, such as trade unions, radical left parties, and social movements.


Author(s):  
Anh Thi Thuy Vo ◽  
Thuy Xuan Ha ◽  
Khanh Phan Nha Bui

In this paper, we investigate the indicators of financial crisis in Asian countries, focusing more on the impact of corporate governance. Unlike the previous studies such as Johnson et al. (2000) and Acemoglu et al. (2003) that use some fixed measures of corporate governance based on the law in force in a specific year—such as the anti-director right index (ADRI) or the anti-self dealing index (ASDI)—we employ the annual Worldwide Governance Index (WGIs) and the Quality of Governance Index. The regression results, which use the data of 19 Asian countries from 1996 to 2015, and control for country fixed effect and the business cycle, show that the macroeconomic factors appear to have no effect, or a minor effect, on currency depreciation. However, better corporate governance reduces the decline in currency value.


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